


Wonder

by FrazzledDragon



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Circus tricks, Damien is a hero, Dick is flirty but also a mess, Drabble, First Kiss, Fluff, Go Easy On Me, Gymnastics, I Don't Even Know, I'm making it up as I go, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Wally likes to flirt but can't handle being flirted with, Wally likes to watch Dick work out, does not really have a place in canon, no editing we die like men, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 15:22:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19748458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrazzledDragon/pseuds/FrazzledDragon
Summary: Wally wanders in while Dick's training and offers to teach him a little.





	Wonder

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: I have /NO/ idea how to do/write gymnastics/circus tricks. I'm completely, 100% making it up as I go. If there's something horrifically, unbearably inaccurate, please let me know how to fix it :)
> 
> Also, if someone would alert me to any spelling/grammar errors (as there almost certainly are many), that'd be super duper swell.
> 
> Hope you like it!!! :D

Dick swung around the bars, leaping from bar to bar with the utmost ease, all the while chatting away with who Wally assumed was one of his brothers. He did a double backflip, landing lightly on the mat and padding over to the rings. 

Wally could hardly believe he was human sometimes. No human should be able to defy gravity like that while casually arguing with family. It should be impossible. But from where he sat, definitely spying on Dick, it was happening.

Dick was one of those people who existed with grace and confidence. Wally wasn’t sure how he did it, how it was so natural, so real. Every move he made, every word he spoke, even at his most unstable, was confident and clear. He didn’t appear to ever mess up, trip, or drop anything he didn’t mean to.

Wally tried to exude confidence, but he knew it was fake. And goodness knew he wasn’t exactly the definition of graceful. Try as he may, he tripped over everything and for the life of him couldn’t keep a hold of anything fragile.

It wasn’t that Wally held it against Dick, not at all. Especially not when Dick made sure  _ Wally _ had to carry all the breakable, irreplaceable things. Even Red Tornado had pondered aloud at Dick’s judgement more than once.

Dick leaped up, grabbed the rings, and started doing pull-ups. Wally blinked. He’d be  _ wheezing _ by this point in an upper-body workout, and here was Dick, casually still chatting with Damian, who Dick revealed when he called out in exasperation. Suddenly, Dick was supporting his weight, keeping his body above the rings, stretching out his legs.

Wally knew he should move on. Dick definitely knew he was here, not because Wally had given himself away or anything, but because it was Dick and Dick was amazing like that. He didn’t like being snuck up on, and he made a point of not letting it happen too often. But nonetheless, Wally couldn’t help but be hypnotized by Dick: his limbs elegantly stretching; tight, corded muscle rippling beneath the pale skin. The guy was powerful, no two ways about it. 

Powerful, graceful, and confident.

Usually that concoction would make an asshole. Dick wasn’t, though. Wally had met Damian. The kid was a bit of a prick, and yet here was Dick, happily chatting with the boy. He had only arrived a few days ago, claiming to be Bruce’s son. 

And he was. Dick had admitted it was a bit weird having another brother who was  _ actually _ related to Bruce, but seeing as the rest of the team wasn’t aware of Dick’s real identity, he had only told Wally. 

Wally kind of liked being the only one in on the secret. 

“Hey, Wally?” Dick called, apparently having ended the call with Damian. “You can come in now.”

Wally grinned shamelessly, speeding into the gym. “Hey, Rob.”

Dick grinned in return, flipping off the rings to the ground. “Did you need something?”

“Nope, not really. Just wanted to hang out with ya.”

“Hanging out works better when the people are in the same room.”

“But you stop working out when I come in the room,” Wally whined, pulling his best puppy-dog face. It’s flirting, plain and pure, but Wally knew he wouldn't take it seriously. “And worse yet, you might ask me to work out  _ with you _ , which would be mortifying in the absolute worst way.”

Dick grinned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m an excellent teacher. I could teach you how to be a gymnast. I bet you’d be great.”

Wally raised an eyebrow, unable to hide his disbelieving smile. “ _ Riiiiight _ . Because I’m gymnast material. Pure elegance right here. All the grace, all the coordination, all tightly packed in this  _ definitely _ evenly muscled body.”

Dick chuckled. “You might be surprized how much this training helps you gain muscles like these. You don’t train like I do, you don’t get muscles like I do.”

“I might be, if I ever worked up the nerve to try it.”

“C’mere. It’ll be fun. It’s really not as hard as it looks. How high can you jump? Without your speed, I mean.” Dick gestured up to the rings. “I can lower them if you need.”

Wally stared at the rings, then at Dick. “How high can  _ you _ jump?”

Dick smirked. “Higher than you, apparently.” With apparent ease, he jumped straight up and grabbed both rings. “See? It’s not so high.”

“ _ Riiiight _ ,” Wally said again, making a show out of checking the bottom of Dick’s feet for blasters or springs and kicking the air beneath him to see if there was something invisible Dick used to get up there. “I could  _ maybe  _ do that if I had, like, a step ladder.”

“You’re just being stubborn. Here,” Dick dropped to the ground and walked over to the wall and lowered the rings. “Try it now.”

Wally looked at Dick again. “This is going to end with me on the ground and you and probably the rest of the team laughing at me.”

Dick crossed his arms with a knowing smirk. “And future-vision is your new power?”

“You know what they say,  _ The past is destined to repeat itself. _ ”

Dick did laugh at that. “Just try it. I don’t only do it to train. I do gymnastics because it’s fun, too. Stop stalling now and try to grab them.”

“Fine,” Wally grumbled. With a last glance at Dick, he jumped for the rings. To his surprise, he actually could grab them, but missed and dropped to the floor, landing with reasonable stability on his feet.

“Try again. You were super close.”

Wally didn’t bother to comment, and jumped again. This time, he did grab the rings. The jolt through his arms wasn’t too bad, but his hands quickly reminded him that there was a limited amount of time he could hold this.

“What’s next?” He grunted, trying to adjust his grip and relieve the pain on his palms.

“Pull yourself up so your waist is even with the rings.”

Had Wally had food or drink in his mouth, he would have spit it out immediately. “Like it’s easy!” To his credit, he did try to pull himself up, got about half way there.

“Once you practice and build up strength, it  _ is _ easy.” Dick moved to stand in front of Wally, arms still crossed as he smirked. “It will all become natural. Besides, it’s kind of shocking how useful being a gymnast is in our line of work. You might find it to be helpful.”

“And just how long have you been a gymnast?” Wally winced, trying again to lift himself above the rings. He was  _ just  _ watching Dick and Dick could easily swing around all day, maybe without his feet ever touching the floor. Surely, Wally could hold himself for a couple minutes.

“Since I could walk,” Dick grinned and Wally groaned.

“So I only have, what, fifteen years to catch up on? I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you were an early walker too.”

“Yep. But, if it makes you feel better, you’re doing a lot better than I thought you’d do. You’ve been hanging onto those rings for the better part of two minutes. How’re your hands?” The teasing tone is enough to pull a growl out of Wally.

“Fantastic. How is your ego?”

“Well-fed,” Dick chuckled. “You might want to let go now. I know your healing factor takes care of blisters too, but having them for any time at all isn’t fun.”

Wally dropped down, a little startled at how close Dick was. To avoid the close eye-contact, Wally looks at his hands. Just like Dick said, his hands were bright pink and terribly blistered. If his healing factor wasn’t taking over as they spoke, he was sure they’d burst by the evening and be a painful mess for days. “Yikes. Pain before beauty, I guess.”

“My hands were completely calloused by the time I was five.” Dick offered up his hands for Wally to see. “I can’t even feel it anymore.”

“Really?” Wally prodded at Dick’s palms, still not meeting his eyes. “That’s so weird…”

“Really.”

Wally was sure he was imagining the flirty tone in Dick’s tone. “You don’t really want to train me as gymnast, do you?”

Dick chuckled. “I’m not sure I can. And I’m not talking about your skill or lack thereof. I’m sure you could develop the muscles and agility required - I have no doubt you could, actually. You’re pretty agile. The problem is you can’t develop calluses. I can teach you to flip and jump, no problem. You’re halfway there already. But without the calluses, you’ll be in pain every time you practice for more than a couple minutes. I suppose we could develop gloves to protect your hands, but it’s really not worth the time. Gymnastics will help you  _ some _ , but not that much. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you do just fine on your own. To pretend you need a further skill-set that would heavily rely on gear and take an exorbitant amount of time to develop is unreasonable.”

Wally laughed, a little confused. “So what was the point of all this?” He loved spending time with Dick, even when he was the butt of the joke, but he couldn’t help but be a little hurt. Why bother if he didn’t think it was worth it?

“I like it when you work out,” Dick whispered in his ear, and Wally’s heart stopped.

“Oh,” he mumbled, his mind reeling. He had often commented that he liked watching Dick work out, but Wally  _ never _ said it like  _ that _ . That wasn’t playful, at least, not in the way he was used to, not at all. His face went red-hot and if he wasn’t going to make eye-contact before, he certainly wasn’t now.

“C’mere. Let’s try something a little different.” Dick wandered over toward two bars, suspended from the ceiling by ropes. Approximately eight feet off the ground, the entire area was cleared so the two bars, twenty feet apart, could swing freely from the high ceilings. Leaping up, he grabbed one of the bars, quickly maneuvering to where he was hanging upside down by his legs. “Go over to that other bar.”

“Dick…” Wally mumbled in mild fear, going to stand under the bar.

“What… you’re going to do…” Dick grunted as he started throwing his weight back and forth to get the bar swinging, “... is line up… your swing with mine… and when I tell you… you’re going to let go and I… am going to catch you.”

Wally’s eyes widened. “I’m going to  _ what _ .” It wasn’t a question, more of a statement. A statement of abject fear and confusion.

“Just like in the circus!” Dick said cheerfully, his face not even red yet from hanging upside down. “You can do it!... I could do it by the time I was six…. We’re not even that high off the ground, so if you miss, it’s no biggie.”

“No biggie?!” Wally’s voice cracked. “I can never be a gymnast, so you switched to circus acrobatics?!”

“Firstly, as far as I’m concerned, they’re much the same thing…” The bar was swinging much further now, and he didn’t have to pause as often. “Second, you can’t tell me you’ve never wanted to try it... Third, I’m doing all the really hard work. I’m upside down, I tell you when to go, and I do all the catching…”

“So what you’re saying is that this is all cupcakes and roses for me?”

“Well, your shoulders might be sore for a couple minutes, but other than that you’re basically a sack of flour.”

“This is gonna end up with one of us on the floor, injured.”

“Since when are you such a skeptic? I do know what I’m doing. Besides, the only one who might end up injured is you, and you, sir, have a healing factor that wipes away all your injuries like  _ that. _ ” Dick snapped to show just how fast Wally would heal.

“Says the one not likely to fall, firstly, and secondly, the fact that you know what you’re doing is half the problem!” Wally whined, but went over to the bar anyway. Taking a couple steps back, he met Dick’s eyes. 

“Now,” Dick called calmly, eyes intently watching as Wally jumped up and grabbed the bar, starting to swing. Wally grunted as he worked to keep his swinging in time with Dick’s and soon, Dick called again. “Now.”

Wally let go, his heart lurching as his mind scrambled to calculate whether or not Dick would catch him. Maybe Dick wouldn’t catch him - maybe Wally was heavier than Dick was giving him credit for, maybe Dick mistimed his command and Wally would fall - would Wally break anything? He wasn’t  _ too _ high off the ground, and his healing factor would probably help, but breaking bones still wasn’t his favorite activity.

It was like it was in slow-motion, watching Dick’s calloused hands wrap around his wrists with practiced ease and suddenly the jolt in his shoulders made him realize he was still in the air, swinging. Quickly, he grabbed Dick’s wrists in return, his mind whirring with adrenaline. 

“Oh,” he said again, stunned. “It worked.”

Dick sighed noisily, his face getting red now. “Told you.”

“What now?” Wally gasped, looking up at Dick.

Dick grunted, and Wally realized with amazement that Dick was lifting him. He could not imagine the core strength necessary to do the maneuver, and was no less stunned when he realized Dick was handing him the bar. He grabbed on, and Dick let out a long breath.

“ _ Damn _ , you’re heavy.”

“If you wanted me to hang from this bar, you could have asked me to hang from this bar,” Wally grumbled, watching as Dick scooched over on the bar to make more room, before sitting up on it like a swing.

“There’s a point to this, Walls. Just… get up here like I am. You’ll be facing the other way, but that’s fine. You’ll understand in a minute.”

Wally got his legs hooked around the bar, and Dick helped him up. Sat like this, their hips pressed together, shoulders brushing, Dick completely at ease, Wally completely not… Wally did not see the point.

“And the point is-” Wally turned to face Dick, interrupted by nothing but Dick’s expression. 

Dick’s expression was fond and thoughtful, his eyes intent and unapologetically staring right at Wally. Wally felt his mouth go dry. “Wally?” Dick’s voice was smooth and soft.

“Yes?” Wally tried to ignore the fact his voice cracked. To be fair, it had been one hell of an afternoon so far. Adrenaline was still coursing through his veins and he was out of breath. His hands tingled as they gripped the rope suspending the bar.

“Can I kiss you?”

His face went the darkest red it could, and any rational or reasonable word or series of words he could have said in response vanish from his mind. He couldn’t speak, he couldn’t move, Dick’s question echoing around his head like a bouncy ball, hitting every surface but never quite landing.

Dick smiled flirtatiously, coming closer to Wally, eyes locked on his lips. “Is that a yes?”

Wally took a shuddery breath, latching onto the last word. “Yes,” he breathed, his own eyes unable to move from Dick’s lips. He was more scared than he had words for, and had no clue what was happening, but he knew that he wanted to find out. More than anything.  _ Yes. _

Dick closed the gap. Wally’s eyes fluttered closed. 

Their first kiss wasn’t perfect, but the second was far better. The third even better than the first two.

They would have tested the fourth out, had Wally not almost slipped and fell off the bar, dragging them both back to reality. “ _ Oh _ ,” Wally gasped for a third time, his heart pounding.

“Overwhelmed, whelmed, or underwhelmed?” Dick asked softly, anxiety shining in his eyes. Wally knew what he was asking. But he had every intention of being a little shit about it, especially since he was approximately ten feet off the ground and still swinging and his head was spinning.

“Overwhelmed!” He panted incredulously. “How could I  _ not _ be overwhelmed? You make me do all sorts of ridiculous, difficult tricks to get up here and then you do  _ that _ ?”

Dick rolled his eyes. “You know what I meant.”

Wally raised a single eyebrow. “Do I?”

Dick rolled his eyes even harder, and for worry of Dick’s eyes’ safety, Wally gave in, even though his answer made his cheeks burn. “It… was amazing, Dick. I… I am… I don’t even… I can’t even express it in words.”

Dick sighed in relief, his smile saying it all. “I feel the same.”

“I still don’t get the point of coming up here though,” Wally grumbled, a smile slipping through the cracks in his facade.

“I… I brought you up here because I feel safe up here,” Dick whispered candidly, glancing at Wally nervously. “I wasn’t sure I could get up the courage anywhere else.” Then he grinned, smug and happy. “Besides, it makes for a great first kiss.”

Wally barked out a laugh. “You’re impossible!” He shook his head to be rid of his dying smile, glancing down at the ground. “Why today?”

“Because I’ve been wanting to kiss you for months,” Dick confessed, his cheeks turning red. “Probably a couple years, if I’m being honest. Damien… He got sick and tired of it. Being the little hypocrite that he is, he threatened that if I didn’t tell you how I felt before the end of the week, he’d tie us down and refuse to release us until I told you.”

“You kissed me because your baby brother told you to?” Wally snorted, a disbelieving but affectionate smile lighting his face.

“I would’ve done it anyway!... Eventually,” Dick grinned. “He was just the push I needed… I… I’m not good at this stuff. Bruce is a terrible teacher that way… He doesn’t really know how to do dating or meaningful social interactions. He tries, but he kinda falls short. I told him I was interested in asking someone out, and he thought I meant to interrogate them. It was a long time before I realized where we had started talking about different types of interactions.”

“Sounds about right.” Wally grinned, before he jumped down from the bar. He knew plenty of rolls to mitigate such a jump, and was upright on the ground in a jiffy. Dick wasn’t far behind him. And before Dick really could process what was happening, his back was a to a wall and Wally had his wrists pinned above his head. 

“Can I kiss you?” Wally asked in return, a playful smile curving his lips.

Dick grinned. “Yes.”


End file.
